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Gregoryfo

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Everything posted by Gregoryfo

  1. As others have mentioned wait for the shareholders meeting, which is on April 5. They will vote to continue the benefit and it will take about two weeks to show up on the website and then you can get your obc for being a shareholder. We often do one of our cruises in August before the kids head back to school and every year we need to wait to get the obc for that cruise.
  2. I have a brother in law that used to go to Atlantic city about once a month for years and years. He does not go anymore because gambling became legal in out state. Out of all the times he went, probably over a hundred, to this day we only hear about six specific trips where he won fairly big amounts. Gamblers have very selective memories.
  3. We were on the legend last month and I found it interesting what could and could not be streamed. Had no problems with youtube streaming, but disney+ and hbo max could not be accessed at all. I also had no problem streaming spotify and audio books (libby).
  4. The 2025 Alaska cruises are back up for those that might be interested. Be careful when booking. My top offer defaulted to a military appreciation offer, which I am not eligible for.
  5. Was on the magic last month. Everything on the ship was great. The ship is in good shape and the different wait staff at mytime dining were wonderful. We have done larger ships and smaller ships previously on Carnival but this was the first time on this size ship. We really liked it, just enough variety of food and activities but not overwhelming. Just an FYI, the arrival at the parking lot in Norfolk was crowded and very slow moving. I think the problem was we came at 11 and there were still buses with people coming back home from the last cruise, so the porters and passengers were confused about which bags were going on the buses to go to the ship and which were coming off the buses for people coming home. We waited for about 15 minutes, the line wasn't moving much so we walked to the street and got an uber. Our bags did make it on the ship fine. Walk off back to the parking lot on the buses at the end of the cruise was quick and painless. The next time we cruise from Norfolk we will either plan to uber from the lot or pick a later arrival time to let the disembarkers clear out. Again though the ship and crew were great, no concerns at all.
  6. I think you are right Lee in that the primary cost will be the same or more. I think, perhaps, if it is significantly less expensive for Carnival maybe they will roll internet into more specials. Things like book an excursion get 25% off internet (as opposed to the 10% off they sometimes give currently) or buy the drink package and get half off internet, or maybe even give it to the gamblers as one of their perks like the drinks on us. Time will tell. We were on the magic two weeks ago and had mid level internet. If they have starlink up and running it is nothing to write home about. The internet was down for hours each day. Late at night it would get up to 3 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up with a ping in the 200's. Usable to read the news and check email at least some of the time in the day but that was it.
  7. Just boarded the magic out of Norfolk. They are using bottled water for the water with lunch and said there was a 'water failure.' What happens if they can't fix it? The first stop is all the way down in PR.
  8. Absolutely. The way we play it is once one of us goes over 5/24 the other will be under and will get the southwest companion pass for a couple of years, but once that person gets over 5 apps they pick up some of the smaller bonuses. Cards that do not have annual fees (carnival) stay open to extend the average age of accounts. This is not a card we use often, but they gave me a couple of hundred bucks to open it and the 10% is not a bad perk.
  9. I am having an odd experience with the Carnival credit card. I rarely use the card, but there was an excursion I wanted to take for an upcoming cruise and I figured I would charge it to the card to save the 10%. After telling the family and extended family a week later about the fun hiking excursion I booked for for everyone they said they did not want to do it. The next day I cancelled the excursion on the carnival website. The $760 was quickly refunded to the card. HOWEVER, when the statement ended a $76 credit was put on the card for the 10%. I figured it would get clawed back in a few days. It has been three months and the $76 credit is still on there. I called Barclays (the credit card issuer) and they got confused and thought I wanted an additional 10% credit. So after holding for 15 minutes the customer service rep came on and said his supervisor would not allow him to give me another $76. I said again that I wanted them to take back the $76, that I should not get a credit for an excursion I returned. He put me back on hold, came back and again said he was very sorry but he could not give me an additional $76. I just got an email that my statement has closed and sure enough the credit is still there. Your Carnival® World Mastercard® account statement is now available online. To view your statements online, log in to BarclaysUS.com and select View Activity & Statements. IMPORTANT NOTICES: Please remember to review your statement to see transactions, payments, other important account information and disclosures such as Account Renewal and Privacy notices. The account above is enrolled in paperless statements, so you will not receive a paper statement in the mail. Your account information: Payment due date: 07/05/2023 by 7pm ET Minimum payment due: $0.00 Statement balance: $-76.00 Has this happened to anyone else? Not sure if I should donate the money to charity or book $500000 in excursions, return them all, and go on a world cruise! 😛
  10. I use google voice to make wifi calls (and text) on every cruise I take to communicate with home, works well. I have no idea if you can set it up at sea though.
  11. The wife and I are school employees from Maryland also. Luckily she works at a county that goes back after labor day and my role I do not need to do pre-service, so we can get the somewhat cheaper third week of August cruises. Hopefully you guys will find one for this summer, but you might also want to look at the August 2024 cruises, the prices are still reasonable. Best of luck!
  12. Thanks after reading your response I looked at the excursion again and saw the RIB one included a wet suit so I guess getting wet would be a part of it. I have two teen children that is enough adventure for me. I cancelled the RIB one and went with the less difficult one.
  13. We are going to Greenland in August out of Baltimore. Today we noticed that new excursions were added. There were two 'different' Nanortalik Iceberg Boat Tours. Same length, same price. However, one has difficult activity level and the other has moderate activity level, but both say ages one and up are allowed to go. We booked the difficult one since the time fit better for our group of four, but we could switch if it is something more extreme. I think carnival did this cruise last year. Did anyone take either of these excursions? If so was it good and can anyone tell the difference between the two. TIA.
  14. Ok so now that midterms are over I wonder if we will get some movement towards reopening Cuba cruises? I felt like Biden did not want to piss off the Florida Cuban-Americans, but based on how Florida went I am not sure he has anything to lose political capital wise with restarting the cruises. I guess we might have to wait for the lawsuits from the old dock owners to get thrown out first.
  15. Costco must be well respected at the port. About ten years ago we took the train up to New York for a cruise to Canada. I got a drink on the train and left my DL on the bar (I was carded for the drink). I got to the port the next morning and realized I did not have my DL. The people at the port were great and basically were like give us anything, we just want to get you on the cruise. I had my costco card and they said good enough. When we got home my DL had been mailed back to my house, I guess by Amtrak.
  16. Yes 10%, they carry the $100 egiftcards for $90 and the $500 cost $450. Chase freedom is also offering 5% back on paypal which can be used at checkout.
  17. I saw an article prior to the pandemic about the possibility of building a cruise port outside of Annapolis so the bridges would not be an issue. Not sure if anything ever came of it or if it was just speculation. Also, I thought Carnival needed to keep some smaller ships in case Cuba cruising returns.
  18. I tested positive using an onpoint monitored home test a couple of weeks back. I called and told them I tested positive and the four of us would not be cruising. They did not ask for any proof and quickly did the FCC and refunded to my credit card what we paid for taxes/port fees. We had the pending credit card refund and used the FCC to rebook within two days. So maybe call and see what they say and if they ask you to email in a copy of the labs do the onpoint thing. You can use any home test you have handy so no reason for hubby to go anywhere. Best of luck and hope he feels better soon.
  19. We have 100 shares just to get the benis. We purchased just after the Saudi's so we have gotten as much OBC as we paid for the stocks a couple of years back. I think you are correct that chapter 11 would not be good for public relations and future bookings, but I think disappointing the shareholder/customers is only a small part of that. I think more so it would be how many customers would be alienated who would not purchase future cruises. Many people do not understand the differences in bankruptcy and might be cautious to give a company going through bankruptcy thousands of dollars for a cruise that is one to two years away. I remember one of the Mississippi river boat companies running into financial trouble about ten years back and they needed to put the deposits in escrow so customers would not worry about losing their deposits. That has to be a difficult way to run your company, not being able to tap into those funds until the cruise actually sails.
  20. Thanks for the sage advice all! I will give the C&A department a call to hopefully get it straightened out. We got back from the cruise and I was swamped with work so I thought, mistakenly, that email would be the quicker fix. Now I know better. Orville: We have two kids in school and we both work for the schools so it is hard to be loyal to any one cruise line. When we find a good itinerary on a date that works we book it, regardless on the line. This has ended up with us having mid level status on Carnival, Royal, NCL, and MSC. Therefore, from what I understand we should be eligible for the double points promotion. I am sure others though thought they were getting double and did not for the reason you pointed out.
  21. We have been cruising a time or two most years for the past 15 plus years. We have been lucky that I have never needed to contact customer service after a cruise. We booked a Royal cruise on 9/6/2021 for a sailing this past June. The cruise was ok, or at least nothing worth complaining about. However, when we returned we did not get the double points that was on the website when we booked. A couple of things about our booking. We did not change rooms, we did not do Royal up, we did not touch the reservations in any way, the reservation was completely paid off on 9/18/21. A few weeks after we returned I emailed guest relations with the following thinking it would be a quick fix: I recently returned on a Bermuda cruise. The reservations # was XXXXXXXX. When I booked it said I would receive double c&a points but only single points were rewarded, can you look into this for us? I got an immediate canned response about future cruise credits, which I am sure it a large part of their email load right now. After two weeks of hearing nothing else I did a follow up email. A couple of weeks later sent an additional follow up email. Couple of weeks go by and another additional follow up with the executive offices cced on the email (mbayley@rccl.com). On August 11, almost two months after my cruise I got the following response: "Hello Gregory,Thank you for contacting Royal Caribbean International. We apologize for the extended delay in our response. We have been experiencing a higher than usual volume of correspondence which has resulted in increased turnaround time for replies.We are pleased you chose to sail with us and participate in our Crown and Anchor Society loyalty program. We have reviewed your most recent sailing onboard Enchantment of the Seas, reservation number XXXXX, and determined that it does not qualify for double points, which applies to bookings made before September 30, 2021, or when you purchase a suite. We are very sorry for any disappointment this may cause.As a reminder, you can earn one Cruise Point for every cruise night you sail with us, and double the points when you purchase a suite. For instance, if you complete a 7-night cruise, you'll earn 7 Cruise Points, and when you purchase a suite, you'll earn 14 Cruise Points. Further terms and conditions apply. Points are not recorded or applied until after you complete your sailing. For example, if you are graduating from Gold to Platinum tier level on your current sailing, you will not receive Platinum level benefits until your next sailing. For a complete list of the membership levels and benefits of the Crown and Anchor Society, please visit https://www.royalcaribbean.com/crown-anchor-society. If we can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out.We appreciate you taking the time to follow up with us and look forward to having you onboard one of our ships again soon. In the meantime, please stay healthy and safe.Best regards,Sentia DorseyRoyal Guest Experience Management I responded that the cruise was booked on September 6 2021 on the 11th and got the same canned response. After two months of waiting it is apparent to me that Ms. Dorsey did not even bother to look at the booking. To me, this is unacceptable. Part of this post is obviously a rant, but honest question, has Royal customer service always been this poor and I have just been lucky to not have to deal with them? Are the other lines equally as poor?
  22. Absolutely out of both Baltimore and New York
  23. This has been my experience as well. It also depends somewhat on what percentage of the excursion you had to prepay in advance. If you are paying in full on the island or only had to prepay a small deposit, trust me they will wait for the $$ to get there before leaving.
  24. Just got back last month. One of the large New York ships got there about an hour before us. Plenty of room on the island for everyone. HOWEVER, that hour head start got them ahead of us on the water slides in the park. Lines were long for the first few hours and then calmed down. My suggestion would be if your ship is second to head to the beach, pool, or wave pool for a couple of hours before going to the water slides in the park.
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